Superior
by Ferociter
Summary: We were designed to be the best irken soldiers in the world. Even better than the invaders. For years we trained, and no one knew our purpose. Finally it was our chance. Our chance to prove ourselves. It was a simple job, get in, get out, return home. That was it. When everything fell to pieces, I have to wonder, did we have enough training?


**Hey all! New Story. YAY! For all of you crazy worry-people, THIS IS NOT REPLACING MORE OF US. I know I just said in my last More Of Us chapter that I would be rewriting it, but right now I am looking for inspiration for it. It will come. In the meantime enjoy this story, which is going to get really crazy... I don't want rush it like I did with More Of Us and ruin it. ENJOY. (Oh, and you might notice the massive increase in word count. It's all about the details)**

**I almost forgot; please review! Bad reviews are great because they help me improve, and good reviews are good because I know what I'm doing right. Reviews are like fuel, more reviews more chapters.**

* * *

I glanced around me as I strutted past the _lesser _irkens. It was finally our time. The tallest had requested our presence. We would become the heroes of the irken empire, and everyone would know of our presence. The fact of the matter was, we were better and everyone would fear us. Even our fellow irkens.

"Is this it?" one of my team walked up beside me, her violet eyes glinted wickedly.

"Yes," I glanced over at her.

"Can you be sure?"

I looked down, the short distance to her eyes. She was short for her rank, but I would choose no one else. I've never met another irken that could handle a gun as well as her. Her antenna were long, reaching almost to her ankles, and had a sort of spirally triangle shape on the tips, almost as if someone had taken triangle antenna, and cut away in a spiral.

"Yes."

Another irken, nearly as tall as me, her right eye blazed a fearsome orange, and her left eye was a simple blue, walked up beside me. Our medic. She sported some serrated long triangles that jutted straight out.

"I just got the call. What is this about?"

The shorter irken piped up.

"Do I get to shoot something?"

"Relax. It's time."

"But... We never finished formal training," the medic looked at me skeptically.

"I-" The hissing of automatic doors cut me off, and Tallest Purple stepped out.

"Welcome!" he grinned maniacally.

"My tallest," I bowed.

"I see someone has maintained some respect," Tallest Purple glared at my colleagues.

"My liege..." the shorter irken bowed, moving her arms out slowly, a sarcastic tone in her voice.

The medic bent at her waist, only slightly.

"Vex, what an... _elegant _bow," I glared at the shorter irken.

"Please, there is no time for anger. I have some great news to share," Tallest Purple beckoned us inside.

I cautiously stepped inside. The room was small and dark, with only two chairs, centered in the room. One was facing towards the door and empty. The other was facing away, towards a window. Tallest Purple walked up a couple small stairs and seated himself in the vacant chair. The door hissed closed behind me. The chair facing away rotated and revealed Tallest Red, his hands linked together, and supporting his chin. Doubt filled my mind.

_"You have outlived your usefulness. You will soon be rotting."_

"Pyk!"

I shook my head and looked up. Tallest Red had addressed me.

"Yes?"

Tallest Red sighed.

"I said, We have a mission for you. Do you except?"

I blinked my yellow eyes slowly, not quite processing what was going on. I yanked on one of my long-ish corkscrew antenna.

"Pyk! Do you except your mission!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good. Follow me."

Tallest Red stood and walked to the wall. Lights turned on, revealing that the room wasn't so small. It opened into a large hanger. The walls were bent and covered in scorch marks. The breached chamber. I recognized this place from the stories told by the older irkens. The one time an enemy vessel had breached the Massive, it was into this hanger. The ship had crashed and the strange aliens inside had escaped. The irkens responded violently. Much blood was spilled. Then, when the battle was to be won, one of the enemy soldiers returned to the ship, and overloaded the engine, and killing every irken in the room. There had only been five soldiers on that vessel, and seventy eight irkens died.

Seated in the center of the hanger, was a sleek vessel, one I had never seen before.

"Do you like it?" Tallest Purple turned towards me.

"Yes... But- it doesn't appear irken," I looked up at my leader.

"It's not. We reverse engineered it based on the pieces we found after the explosion. Then we painted it to look like it belonged to us," Tallest Red glanced up at the craft.

My mouth opened in aw as we approached the vessel. The bottom was ever so slightly curved in, and the irken symbol sat proudly on the bottom. The ship had two strange winglets, that were laid back like the ears of an angry beast. The front was a slightly curved angle, leading into the top, which went straight back, and had a slightly more extreme upwards curve running the length of it. Near the front was a leg of some sort, that seemed unstable. It consisted of three joints. One at the top of the leg, one in the middle like a knee, and one where it met the foot. In the back there were two boosters, pointing towards the ground. The boosters had a cone on the opposite side from the rockets, that had yellow and black spirals on it. The boosters appeared to be hinged. The window at the front ran the width of the craft, and the sides were tilted in, making the bottom of the window shorter than the top. At the very front there were two headlights. The coloring was very similar to the Massive, except white across the bottom, boasting the irken symbol. There were three panels on the bottom, one that the leg was protruding from, and two more in front of that.

Something bounced off my head painfully, as I looked at the ship. I looked down at the ground and saw keys.

"She's yours," Tallest Red glanced at the keys on the floor.

I picked up the keys and looked back at the ship, rubbing my head. On second glance, the ship wasn't as large as I had originally thought. It was bigger than a cruiser, and smaller than a crew transport ship. It must be a fighter.

"What is she called?" I asked.

"Superior. Like you," Tallest Purple answered

"We modified the controls to be pilot-able with just one irken," Tallest Red glanced at me smugly.

"It's really ours?" Vex glanced at the Tallest, who were now standing side by side.

"Yes. The mission is coded into the on board computer. We wouldn't want to risk anyone overhearing it, now would we," Tallest Purple glanced to the entrance of the hanger.

I walked to the back, which slanted up into the top, creating a ledge above me, and pushed the button on the keys. A section of the back hissed and began to lower, forming a ramp into the space craft. I walked slowly up the ramp, and peered inside. There were exactly five chairs in the room. Three were at the front, looking out of the window, with a large dashboard in front of them. The dashboard was mostly plain, except for a joystick, three buttons to the right of the joystick, an second joystick, one that could only move forward and backward, to it's left. The floor was boring grey, and cables lined the ceiling. The walls were a slightly darker color than the floor. The other two chairs were on either side of the inside of the spacecraft, facing the walls. There were screens in front of the chairs, and a few controls. The screens on the right had diagrams of the spacecraft, which was broken up into segments. The segments were pale blue and had 100% inside of them. I assumed it meant the ship was completely undamaged. The main screen on the left was a radar, and the ones on either side of that were digital maps, of the galaxy we were in. The screen on top was a map of the known universe.

I walked to the front of the spacecraft, and sat in the middle chair. It was comfortable. Vex walked in and glanced around. She noticed a cupboard I had missed and opened it. The cupboard was filled with strange weapons I had not seen before. Vex grinned. Wik, the medic, walked in and immediately sat down at the damage indicator station. The door sealed behind her and interior lights flickered on. The window went black, and the Tallest's faces appeared on it. The window also functioned as a screen.

"Hello faithful members of the irken armada!" Tallest Red grinned.

"The controls are very basic. The left joystick controls speed, and also has the button to shoot the ships weapon. The right joystick steers. The buttons state what they do, and we don't really understand what the stuff at the other two stations does, but we're sure you'll figure it out," Tallest Purple matched Tallest Red's grin.

The screen closed and light flooded through the windows. I blinked once, then pulled on the coils in my right antenna. Just for luck. I pressed the button that was labeled _landing gear _in irken, and heard a soft hum as the leg retracted and the two boosters rotated into place. The ship remained in the air, by some sort of hovering system. I turned the ship towards the round door at the end of the hangar. I looked to my left, and saw the Tallest giving me the thumbs up from behind the safety glass. The doors rotated and pulled apart with a groan. I struggled to keep the ship in place as space sucked all the air out if the chamber. I pressed forward on the throttle. The ship slowly moved forward, and through the gap. I turned the ship and glanced back at the massive, as the eye on the irken symbol closed behind me.

I slowed the ship to a stop and rotated the chair so I was facing inward. The Tallest had said the computer would brief us. I waited patiently for another minute, then realized nothing was going to happen.

"Um, computer?"

"Yes sir," a robotic sounding woman's voice replied.

"You have our mission data?"

"Yes sir," The voice replied.

"Could you play it?"

"Initiating playback."

A small panel opened in the floor and a metal box with a topless cone rises from the hole. The topless cone lit up and a spherical hologram appeared above it. For a minute nothing happened, then the computer's voice spoke up.

"Your Target-" The sphere changed and became a figure.

"Invader Zim-" The figure blurred, then sharpened, and a Zim hologram started spinning, allowing us all to see him.

Information appeared on his right side, and on the left side, random clips of him destroying our cities in the battle mech.

"Rank- Invader, Status- Gullible, Reason for termination- Annoying."

I squinted my eyes at the hologram, just spinning.

"Location- Earth."

"Hmm. He looks fairly harmless," Vex raised an eyebrow.

"Computer, threat level?" I asked.

"Threat level- High."

"Computer, details. Besides the obvious reasons," I waved at the clips, and they disappeared.

"Suspected of rogue behavior. Suspected of insanity."

"Specify rogue behavior," Wik commanded.

"Has severed contact with The Tallest. Has been filmed fraternizing with humans. Has repainted his space craft, The Voot."

"Computer, pull up information on the cruiser model, Voot."

"Searching..."

The holo-Zim was replaced by a holographic Voot Cruiser.

"Weapons- Features two pulse cannons that also function as tractor beams. Tools- Features two pods that detach and form cutting tools. Status- Outdated."

"Should be fairly easy to take out. Computer, identify weak points. Color- Red," I leaned forward as the red began to color the space craft.

The boosters turned red, along with the glass cockpit and the very back of the Voot.

"Computer, save data," I turned around in my chair, and grabbed the joystick and throttle again.

The box lowered into the floor, and the panel sealed over it again.

"Data saved."

"Vex, plot a course for Earth."

"Yes sir!"

She bent forward and started pushing buttons. A second later she straightened up.

"Course set sir!"

I threw the throttle up and we left the armada for the first time.

* * *

Four Hours Later...

"Sir, how far away is Earth?" Vex turned her head and looked at me.

We were a sorry sight. Vex had her feet up on the navigation control panel, and Wik had fallen asleep and was drooling on herself, and I kept yanking on my antenna to stay awake.

"Vex, I don't know. We'll get there, when we get there."

Vex rolled her head back and looked at the ceiling.

"Computer, how much longer until we arrive at Earth?"

"The trip can take anywhere between eight months and 0.14 seconds."

"Oh- Wait, what!?"

"Allow me to repeat myself- The trip can take anywhere between eight months and 0.14 seconds. Was that not clear before?"

"How would we get there in 0.14 seconds?" I sat up and spun around.

"Use the hyper drive, sir."

"The what now?"

"The hyper drive."

"That does what?"

"It folds the corners of space and let's you jump between them."

Vex sat up.

"Let's do that!"

"Computer, how do you activate hyper drive?"

"Say, Computer, activate hyper drive. However hyper drive requires certain precautio-"

"Computer, activate hyper drive!" Vex yelled.

Everything blurred and stretched out, and I was vaguely aware of Wik flying out of her chair and into the back of the Superior. As soon as it started, it stopped.

"Ow."

"Oops," Vex looked at me awkwardly.

"That's the understatement of the century."

A groan sounded from behind me.

"Shit. You killed our medic," I got up an ran to the back of the Superior.

Wik was slumped, her head sagged forward, and her eyes were closed. Vex appeared behind me.

"We need to take her to an irken medical facility!" I glared at Vex.

"Got it. Computer, where are we?" Vex looked up.

"We are currently orbiting Pluto, a dwarf planet in Earth's solar system."

"And the nearest irken medical facility?"

"Our last location."

"Can we hyper drive back?"

"Under normal circumstances, the hyper drive would need time to recharge."

Vex got a hopeful look.

"And under these circumstances?"

"The hyper drive was poorly assembled and was completely fried in the travel."

"Oh."

I pulled Wik out into the center of the floor and laid her down.

"Vex, come here and keep Wik's head elevated."

"What are you going to do?"

"Take us to Earth."

I sat down in my chair, and throttled the Superior up. Worry lined my forehead as I left Pluto behind. How could my first mission go so badly?

* * *

Later

I frowned as I looked out the window at the planet below us. I glanced back at Vex, who was trying to awaken Wik by murmuring in her ear. I had put the Superior into Earth's orbit while I looked for a safe place to land. I couldn't reveal the irken's existence to humans. I squinted.

"Computer, zoom."

The window appeared to fly forward as it zoned in on the location. It was a forest, one with little human habitation. The best I had seen so far. I masterfully turned the joystick and scored the forest. I located a small clearing, with a cave. It was perfect. Secluded, flat, and it had a place to set up our base. I sat down.

"Vex, are you stable?"

"Yes."

"Good, I'm taking us down."

I flew down into earth's atmosphere, carefully bring us in slowly. We passed through and the cockpit began to heat up.

"Hold on Vex."

I pushed the joystick all the way forward, and the Superior went into a dive. I gritted my teeth as I was pushed back into my seat.

"Warning G-force levels above recommended value."

"Shut up!"

The Superior punched through the cloud layer, and the ground appeared. Much closer than I thought it would be. I pulled back on the joystick, and the Superior responded, pulling up and flying just above the tree line.

"Excuse, but can we not-" Vex called from the back.

"Sorry. But I think we need to get her into normal gravity as soon as possible."

"This is why we can't have nice things," Vex said, sarcastically.

I shook my head and turned my eyes back to the window. I saw the clearing ahead and adjusted our course. Once we were above the clearing I pressed the landing gear button, and we began to descend. We hit the ground with a soft bump.

"Uh, Pyk?"

"Yeah Vex?"

"Wik is bleeding."

"What?"

"Yeah. I guess we didn't notice it before because we were in space."

"Shit."

"We need to get her on a stretcher."

I stood up and walked to the cupboard opposite the weapons cupboard. I opened it and saw it was filled with tiny cubes. I grinned.

"We have supply cubes."

"Great," Vex stared at me, "That was sarcastic."

"I know. Catch," I threw a cube at Vex's head.

"Owww," Vex jokingly whined.

"Just- just activate the stretcher," I glared at her, aggravated.

Vex picked up the cube and pushed one of the sides. The cube started to blink red. She put the cube down on the ground and backed away. A hissing sound filled the Superior, and the cube unfolded, until it became a hover stretcher.

"Help me put Wik on."

Vex and I struggled as we lifted Wik onto the stretcher. We dropped her mercilessly onto it, in an unorganized heap. I pushed the stretcher to the door.

"Computer, open door."

The door hissed and lowered. I ran out, pushing the stretcher. The cold wet grass crunched under my foot. There was a short cliff to my right, and in the cliff was a small hole. The cave. I turned and walked towards the hole. It was smaller than I had thought. I ducked and walked inside. The entrance was bigger on the other side. I turned around and grabbed the stretcher, gingerly pulling it inside. The cave dipped down at a steep angle. I carefully made my way down the hill. I could vaguely make out a faint glow around a bend. I stepped around the bend and my eyes grew wide.

There were colorful gems sprouting from the ceiling, which pulsed with a strange glow. They completely lit up the cave, which had a floor that was unusually flat, except for a dip into the back, which held some kind of clear liquid. I slipped on the ground and fell onto the stretcher. I shot across the room and the stretcher went over the dip and stopped over the strange liquid.

"Vex."

"Yes," Vex came around the bend and looked at the ceiling in aw.

"Do you recognize this liquid?"

Vex looked at the liquid the hover stretcher was now lowering towards. I scrambled onto the stretcher, squishing Wik.

"No. I can't say as I do."

"Please ask the computer."

"Will do."

Vex turned and started running back out of the cave.

"Vex! I meant af-"

She disappeared from sight.

"-ter you pull me back to safety."

I grimaced as the stretcher dropped another couple of inches.

"Vex!" I got no answer.

The stretcher dropped again, so that the fabric that made up the bottom was wet with the liquid. I scrambled further onto Wik. She grunted. Vex ran in, looking terrified.

"Based on my description, the computer told me it's water! Apparently it's so polluted that it is like acid to irken skin!"

"Um, Vex..."

I looked down as the stretcher started to shake.

"Yeah?" Vex said as the stretcher gave out and I collapsed into the water with a splash.

I grimaced and stood. The water was only waist deep, and didn't appear to be eating away at my skin.

"Check the pollutant levels in this water Vex."

"WAGUBLUGHATHUG!" Wik stood up behind me, and started spitting water everywhere.

"Oh. Wik, your alive," I looked behind me.

"Mostly. My head hurts like crazy though."

"Yeah, it's a little bit bleeding and traumatized."

"What happ-"

"Don't even ask me. Just get the computer to show you the flight footage," I walked out of the water, shaking my head slightly to get the water off of my antenna.

Vex came running in, leaned over the water, and took a small sample of it. Wik walked out, rubbing her head.

"Hey Vex, where's the exit. And the ship." Wik looked at Vex as she passed

"Why don't you ask Pyk?" Vex looked up from her sample.

"He's a little grouchy."

"I don't blame him-"

I stopped listening as I walked over to the opposite side of the cavern, and stripped my shirt off. I sat down on a ledge, and threw the shirt to the ground. My neck slackened and my head fell into my hands. I closed my eyes, and forced all thought from my mind. I squinted harder as the anger flushed from my system. It was difficult, because it had been a while since I used this method. I used it a lot in training, before I stopped caring about the people I killed.

A few minutes passed, while my teammates began to unload the ship. Neither of them disturbed me. Finally I stood up, and dropped my arms to my sides. They sagged from exhaustion. I shook me head, then stepped forward, strong and bold.

"Vex!" I barked.

"Yessir," Vex came running from the other side of the cavern.

"I need my EPT. Stat."

"Your what-now?" Vex looked at me strangely.

"My EPT, or Electrical Placement Tape," I glared down at her.

"Ok... I think... I saw it. Over there?" Vex spun around in place.

"Vex."

"Yes Pyk?"

"First off, you are to address me as captain, or sir. Secondly, what have I told you about not losing important equipment?" I stepped around Vex, so that she was behind me, facing the wall.

"Definitely, always do it."

I sighed.

"Back in training, you would have been heavily disciplined for this behavior. As it is, I have not the time, so I shall let you off with a warning. Mind your attitude, or I will hang you from the ceiling by your _antenna!_" I seethed the last few words.

Vex gulped.

I walked out into the center of the cavern.

"Now Vex. Bring me my EPT. If you fail to comply, you know what happens."

Vex ran around me and started searching through boxes, frantically. A huge grin split across my face. I loved it when I made someone cringe.

* * *

I straightened my back, and looked at my handiwork. The floor of the cave was divided by lines of glowing tape. One side had a row of squares marked out, and the other had a similar set of squares, except these were staggered so each side of the square, met the middle of the square across from it. There were four squares on the right, and three on the left. Each square had a supply cube in the middle. I pushed the button attached to my tape, and each cube activated. The one closest to me, on the right, shot across and unfolded into cryo-pods, their backs pressed tightly against the cave wall. The second one on the right, unfolded into an irken kitchen. The one behind that unfolded into a weapons lab. The final one on the right shaped into a power converter, which ran it's cords to everywhere else. The first one on the left opened up and became an engineering lab. The one behind that became the medical lab, and the final one became a laundry room. I grimaced as I looked at my shirt, filthy and laying on the dirt covered ground. We really needed a floor.

I stepped back and admired my handiwork. We didn't need lights because of the strange crystals, so that saved power. I walked to the pool of water.

"Vex, what came back in the test?"

"Um... rounding it was- 96% pure water- 3% natural minerals- 0.00000000000000000006% irken blood."

"Good."

I tossed one last cube into the water. It started blinking, then sank below the water. A heavy cable shot out of the water and plugged into the power converter. The soft sound of machines humming filled the air.

"We got lucky. I didn't think the cave would have a source of natural coolant. The generator should be just fine," I smiled at my crew.

"Now we go hunting."

"Now we go hunting," I agreed.


End file.
